Behaviour Change

PROPAGANDA FOR CHANGE is a project created by the students of Behaviour Change (ps359) and Professor Thomas Hills at the Psychology Department of the University of Warwick. This work was supported by funding from Warwick's Institute for Advanced Teaching and Learning.

Monday, February 18, 2013

Listerine mouthwash

These adverts are for Listerine mouthwash and show the
effects of bad breath.

Goldenberg, Mazursky and Solomon suggested 6 fundamental
templates of quality ads in their paper (1999), one of which is the extreme
situation template, which this advert fits with. This template uses extreme situations
to show the use of the product the advert is promoting. In this particular
advert, it shows an extreme case of people distancing themselves, and covering
their faces from a person with bad breath. The second example of Listerine mouthwash
adverts, is even more extreme, and suggests that even paramedics will be affected
by your bad breath, and will use anything to avoid smelling your breath, and this in turn may affect the speed of treatment!

However, another template these adverts use is the consequences
template (Goldenberg et al, 1999). This template shows the implications of
using or not using the product which they are advertising. This advert would be
using the inverted consequences version of this template. This version shows
viewers that people will purposefully cower away from you, regardless of the
setting, as a consequence of not using their product.